A United States immigration judge has ruled the leader of Wisconsin’s largest mosque can be deported under a controversial law that United States President Donald Trump’s administration has used against non-citizens advocating for Palestinian rights. Judge Jayme Salinardi ruled on Wednesday that Palestinian-born Salah Sarsour, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, can be removed from the US based in part on a memo by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “his actions undermine US foreign policy to combat antisemitism around the world”, according to his lawyers. Sarsour, who has lived in the US for more than three decades, called the ruling “deeply disappointing”.
His lawyer, Patrick Taurel, strongly rejected the decision. He should be given back his green card, frankly, with an apology for what’s being done to him.” The ruling does not mean Sarsour will be immediately deported. His lawyers have 60 days to argue that sending Sarsour back would put him at risk of torture, which could protect him from deportation under the Convention Against Torture.
If they lose, they plan to appeal. Taurel said he can’t be deported while that appeal is pending and will remain in the US for the “foreseeable future”. Sarsour was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Milwaukee in March, nine months after Rubio issued a memo declaring him deportable on foreign policy grounds.
The June 2025 memo invoked a rarely-used US law that allows the Secretary of State to seek the deportation of non-citizens whose presence could have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” The administration has used the same provision against pro-Palestinian activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. Sarsour’s lawyers criticised the “extreme deference” Salinardi gave to Rubio’s memo. But Taurel said the judge believed his hands were tied by an earlier ruling in Khalil’s case, which found that a letter from the Secretary of State could be enough to make someone deportable on foreign policy grounds.
That meant Salinardi could not look behind Rubio’s decision to examine the evidence supporting it, Taurel said. The government did not win on all of its arguments. Salinardi rejected its allegation that Sarsour had lied on his green card application.
Taurel said the judge also rejected an allegation that Sarsour had falsely claimed to be a US citizen in order to vote. Al Jazeera reached out to the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security but did not receive responses by the time of publication. Sarsour is separately fighting the Trump administration in federal court over his detention while his deportation case is ongoing.
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